Lockheed unveils concept to replace AMRAAM-HARM

Boeing and Raytheon have always seemed the favourites to win the US Air Force next generation missile (NGM) contract. The NGM — formerly titled with the mouthful of joint dual role air dominance missile, or JDRADM — aims to replace the AIM-120 AMRAAM and the AGM-88 HARM. Note that both are Raytheon missiles. Meanwhile, Boeing has collected a series of wonderfully acronym’d research and development contracts from the Air Force Research Laboratory (my favourite is called “MR ROKM”). Raytheon and Boeing are also working on separate NGM demonstrations funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s triple-target terminator (T3) programme.

But Lockheed Martin wished to remind folks at the Air Force Association’s annual convention that they’re also in the missile business, and, yes, they, too, want a piece of that NGM action.

So Lockheed unveiled its own notional concept for the NGM in the exhibit hall. There was some initial confusion because someone placed a Boeing sticker on Lockheed’s model. The sticker showed an NGM fired by a Lockheed F-22, so it illustrated the concept. But the sticker also was clearly labeled as property of “The Boeing Company”. After we pointed this out, Lockheed quickly removed the sticker.

Lockheed is actually still partnered with Northrop Grumman. We recall when the Lockheed-Northrop partnership was announced at the 2008 Farnborough air show. At that time, these partners refused to confirm the deal was focused on the then-JDRADM competition, although it seemed obvious.